


Fire

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [12]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 00:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4413461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knew what it looked like, but this really didn't have anything to do with jealousy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire

_“Mulder? Are you sure you don’t want me to help you out on this one?”  
“Sooner or later, a man’s got to face his demons.”_

She knew what it looked like, but she honestly wasn’t jealous.

That Phoebe Green had rubbed her the wrong way from the moment they’d met was immaterial. (Seriously, though, the woman had picked a hell of a way to introduce herself. “Hello! Your car is about to explode and you are going to die. Just kidding! Cheerio!” Who  _did_  that?)

No, this wasn’t about jealousy. This was about concern for her partner’s well-being. Mulder may have been the one with the psychology degree, but it didn’t take a PhD from Oxford to see what was going on with him. She’d seen it before with Jerry, and it was even more obvious now with Phoebe: Mulder couldn’t seem to help letting himself get dragged back under the thrall of people who had hurt him in the past.

That was maybe phrasing things a bit dramatically, but the point stood. It was clear Mulder hadn’t wanted to get involved in Jerry’s case, but he had, whether out of loyalty or guilt or something else Scully couldn’t identify. And then when Jerry had stolen his work, Mulder had been understandably upset, but not all that surprised, and he’d been quick to wave off his former partner’s offenses. Surely his willingness, no matter how reluctant, to now get involved in Phoebe’s case was another clear example of this aspect of his personality.

And she would be damned if she watched him put himself through it on his own. Whether he liked it or not, she was his partner, and she would absolutely have his back, no matter what he said about letting her off the hook.

If, in the process, she happened to solve the case right under Phoebe’s nose, well… she wasn’t exactly going to cry herself to sleep over it.


End file.
